I read Bruno's FAQ on the game and this forum and managed to get answers to must of my questions, but I still have some left after playing four games of Merlin's Company. I must say that the rules are a little bit vaguely than the vanilla version of the game's. So I would appreciate it if someone could help me with these:

1. Does Merlin stay at a quest after the knights finish it (provided he was there alongside them)?

2. Does drawing a "Merlin travels" travel card allow one to draw a new white card upon arrival? I would say no since the turn ends upon arrival, but this brings me to another question: What if I would follow up the travelling by paying a life to perform a different heroic action?

3. Does a bad travel card (e.g. charge, ambush) cause a knight not to reach his destination, even after successfully performing the task described on the travel card?

4. Does drawing witch #1 require you to shuffle her into the newly shuffled black deck or is she the first card on the new discard pile?

5. Is it possible to send Merlin to an already finished question by using Merlin to the Rescue, and if so, is it possible to send Merlin to a finished Dragon&#8217;s Quest (since it will still add Siege Engines to Camelot even though the board is removed from play).

1. Does Merlin stay at a quest after the knights finish it (provided he was there alongside them)?

Since he only moves because of a Merlin Travels or Merlin to the Rescue card, and there is no change made to the ending a quest process, we assume that he stays there.

MacBryce

2. Does drawing a "Merlin travels" travel card allow one to draw a new white card upon arrival? I would say no since the turn ends upon arrival, but this brings me to another question: What if I would follow up the travelling by paying a life to perform a different heroic action?

The turn doesn't end until you announce the end of your turn. So yes, you may draw a card after travel.

MacBryce

3. Does a bad travel card (e.g. charge, ambush) cause a knight not to reach his destination, even after successfully performing the task described on the travel card?

Successfully completing the challenge means that you continue with your turn and the Travel is completed. If you are unsuccessful your turn ends immediately and you haven't travelled.

MacBryce

4. Does drawing witch #1 require you to shuffle her into the newly shuffled black deck or is she the first card on the new discard pile?

We always shuffle her back in so that there is a chance of a reshuffle again before going through the whole deck.
(we also house rule that the travel deck is reshuffled whenever there is any deck shuffling as it helps keep it unpredictable - nothing worse than knowing kidnap is the only card remaining and not being able to travel)

MacBryce

5. Is it possible to send Merlin to an already finished question by using Merlin to the Rescue, and if so, is it possible to send Merlin to a finished Dragon's Quest (since it will still add Siege Engines to Camelot even though the board is removed from play).

The card manifest in the rules explicitly states that this is possible in the entry for Merlin to the Rescue.

We've had fun with the expansion although most of the group feel that the game is a bit harsher with the travel deck and the witches. Personally I like the additional challenge (as long as our reshuffling house rule is in use).

I will definitely try out your house rule as well as it might be better for us too. To be honest, there are so little travel cards and they have such a huge impact, that I manage to memorize them all way too easily.

I wasn't sure about the free Merlin card after Merlin Travels because Bruno's FAQ (http://www.auteursdejeux.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=2716) says that "Once and only during your turn, you may draw a white card if you are at the same place as Merlin. This is valid in the following situations: 1) When Merlin and a knight are at the same place at the start of the turn, the knight can take a free white card and then move. 2) When Merlin and a knight are not on the same place at the start of the turn, a knight can move to the quest where Merlin is and then draw a free white card. 3) If Merlin is in Camelot, a knight who is fighting catapults may draw a free white card if there are catapults in Camelot." There's no mentioning of "when a knight and Merlin are at the same place at the end of the turn". So my group has always played without drawing a free card after travelling alongside Merlin.

I prefer the expansion as well. Playing without a traitor, my friends and I have never lost a single game of SoC (around 15 games played), with or without expansion. Our second battle with a traitor we still managed to win too. The only battle we've lost was when we played it for the first time and the only experienced player was the traitor. Hopefully we can get some more battles with traitors in, but I've learned that traitors are just not fun if you're playing with new players and for the moment we've mostly been introducing people to the game.